In late September or early October, Jacob and I are heading to
Zhongshan to spend a few weeks with my parents and my grandparents.
Zhongshan is my mother's 老家, or home town. Since many people in China live in a place for generations, 老家 can also be an ancestral home.
Zhongshan, in Guangdong province about an hour from Guangzhou, used to be a small undeveloped town where everyone rode bicycles. Now it's a large town with new condos, a gleaming 5-storey shopping center, and streets where everyone scoots around on motorcycles. (At least until they can save up money for a car.) Even though Zhongshan has experienced much development in the last 10 years, it is still very relaxing to stroll up and down the tree-lined streets and not be stuck in a throng of people. The streets and air aren't polluted. There is a 500-year-old tree that juts out into a major road, but nobody will cut it down because it's 500 years old.
Dance music pioneer Paul Oakenfold has been doing shows in China for over 10 years. In a recent Guardian article, he discusses the club scenes in not only Shanghai and Beijing, but also Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Jinan. Tom Pattinson, an editor at TimeOut Beijing, includes a list of club picks in China.
